Need Help with Headphone Specs

[jackajesusfreak]

I have 3 sets of headphones I'm looking at. I am familiar with all the specs except for the following ones. Not sure what these numbers mean and if high is better or low is better:

#1 #2 #3

FREQUENCY: 12-22 20-22 30-20
NOM IMP: 32ohms 32ohms 40ohms

[WayneP]

Impedance doesn’t matter much for a headphone spec, AFAIK. The frequency response is what you want to look at. All of those show good frequency response in theory. However, the numbers quoted don’t tell you much because they don’t have a +/- indication. Response from 20 Hz (very low frequency) to 20 kHz (very high frequency) is excellent, and in a perfect world response between those two figures would be ruler-flat. However, all speakers and headphones deviate from flat response. Response of 20 Hz-20 kHz +/- 3 dB would be excellent; +/- 10 dB would be rather poor.

But in the end, numbers don’t matter as much as “how do they sound?” You can have headphones with similar response specs that sound very different. It’s always best to demo your options and decide for yourself. As an example, a while back I bought some headphones based on the testimonials of several people who affirmed that they sounded great. I was sorely disappointed; I thought they were mediocre at best.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

[jackajesusfreak]

Thanks Wayne, valuable info here!!!